Thoughts, links, inside information and program previews from the host of Chicagoland's premier local-access political talk show.

Monday, January 24, 2005

Updated January 24, 2005 at 12:30 am
************************************
Coming tonight to a TV near you.

Cook County Board Member Forrest Claypool [D- Ravenswood] is featured on “Public Affairs,” throughout the City of Chicago tonight [Jan. 24 at 8:30 pm on Cable Ch. 21].
*****************************************
Jeff Berkowitz: So, you think somebody will step up to challenge [Congressman] Dan Lipinski [D- 3rd Cong. Dist]? In the Democratic Primary?

Forrest Claypool: I have no idea, but I think people oughta be guaranteed an election every two years, not just an appointment.
*******************************************
Berkowitz: But, you might get Commissioner Joan Murphy? You might win this [opposition to a tax increase] by more than one vote.

Claypool: I don’t understand. I mean, you would think he would count noses.
***************************************
Cook County Board Member Forrest Claypool [D- Ravenswood] is featured on “Public Affairs,” throughout the City of Chicago tonight [Jan. 24 at 8:30 pm on Cable Ch. 21]. A partial transcript of the show with County Commissioner Claypool is included, below. ***************************************
Cook County Commissioner Forrest Claypool [D- Ravenswood] debates and discusses with Show Host and Executive Legal Recruiter Jeff Berkowitz school vouchers and tax credits, Cook County Board budget, spending and tax issues, including proposed increases in taxes by President Stroger, Cook County structural deficits, step wage increases for county employees, Cook County collective bargaining, across the board spending cuts, hotel and restaurant taxes, possible candidates for President of the Cook County Board and Cong. Dan Lipinski’s replacement on the ballot of Cong. Bill Lipinski.
********************************************
Jeff Berkowitz:… You want to give them [parents] a $10,000 tax credit [for attending private schools]? Is that what you want to do?

Forrest Claypool: I would make the tax credit so that if you are a poor child in the inner city in a failing school system, the tuition tax credit, by being refundable would give that parent an option to look around and see if there is a better private school for their kid, and would have the means to do it by virtue of that credit, but the difference [from the school choice/school voucher backpack program you propose] is that the money would come from the state. We would not be cannibalizing local resources from the local school through a voucher—we would be getting the money from the state, through a refundable tuition tax credit, just like an earned income tax credit.

Berkowitz: Does it take an increase in taxes then [under your school choice refundable tax credit program], because if you are not going to cut it, if you are going to allow kids to stay there [in public schools] with the complete portion from the local level, the kids who stay will have more to spend on [their education] than the kids who leave [to go to a private school] unless you raise taxes. Do you want to do that? You want to raise taxes?

Claypool: Of course not.

Berkowitz: Of course not. In fact, that is a good segue to what you are doing now. So, the proposal now from President John Stroger to the Cook County Board is to raise county taxes, right?

Claypool: Correct.

Berkowitz: What are the taxes he wants to raise?

Claypool: He wants to raise taxes on food, including fast food. He wants to add a tax on amusements. And, also raise property taxes for the forest preserves- by 13.5 %.

Berkowitz: And, what is the percentage increase on the restaurant tax?

Claypool: 2% on top of the existing 15.5%

Berkowitz: On the hotels?

Claypool: On the hotels.

Berkowitz: So, that raises it [tax on hotel customers] to 17.5%. That would be the highest in the country, right?

Claypool: Right. Exactly.

Berkowitz: And on restaurants, he is going to raise it 2% to 10%, right?

Claypool: Correct.

Berkowitz: Also, pretty high. You oppose it, right?

Claypool: Correct.

Berkowitz: And, you have some support. [Commissioner] Mike Quigley, is opposed to it right. [Commissioner] Larry Suffredin, right? Two other Democrats. Tony Peraica, a Republican, opposes the tax increases, right?

Claypool: Correct.

Berkowitz: You can probably expect [Republican Commissioners] Liz Gorman, Greg Goslin, Pete Silvestri and Carl Hansen [to join you]. Five Republicans on the Board [will likely oppose the tax increase]; Three Democrats we just mentioned [will likely oppose the tax increase] and last time [all of] you opposed Stroger on a tax increase and you beat him back. He didn’t get his tax increase. He wanted an increase in the sales tax; he wanted an increase in the lease tax.

Claypool: By one vote [we won].

Berkowitz: By one vote, you got Commissioner Earlean Collins to join you, right?

Claypool: I don’t understand. I mean, you would think he would count noses.

Berkowitz: He basically says there is a structural deficit here. He says they need the revenue; the people want the services. And, there is no place to cut-- he says, “we have cut as much as we can.”

Claypool: Well, there is a structural deficit only because he is not willing to make the hard choices necessary to streamline the government.

Berkowitz: Hard choices? One would be a 2 % across the board cut in each department, right?

Claypool: That is what we proposed last year.

Berkowitz: State’s Attorney office, the County Treasurer’s office, the County Assessor’s office, the whole thing, right? Is that what you mean?

Claypool: That is what we proposed last year.

Berkowitz: How much would you save if you did that this time?

Claypool: More than the tax increase. But, this is not--

Berkowitz: The tax increase is-- would generate 73 million dollars?

Claypool: This year and 140 [million dollars] next year.
*********************************************
Claypool: The bottom line is that President Stroger is simply not willing to reduce expenditures by removing a bloated payroll and also by removing these huge…step increases or pay raises on top of cost of living increases [for Cook County employees]. You and I might get a cost of living increase but these employees will get not only a cost of living increase, but another 5, 6, 7, or 8 % increase on top of that.
**********************************************
Jeff Berkowitz: What about the 3rd Cong. District? You know there were some shenanigans that went on there. Would you agree with that?

Forrest Claypool: What shenanigans?

Berkowitz: Well, [22 year] Cong. Bill Lipinski ran in the primary- his name got on the [general election] ballot and [Cong. Bill] said he was going to run and sometime after, he decided he wouldn’t. He met with the Committeemen in that District: Speaker Mike Madigan [13th Ward], John Daley [11th Ward]- you know John Daley, [Tom] Hynes [19th Ward] and they chose [Cong.] Bill Lipinski’s [23rd Ward] son- Dan Lipinski [to replace Bill Lipinski on the general election ballot]. Does that sound like the way in which you want to do things?

Claypool: No. I think there oughta be a law that there is always an election, regardless. There oughta be an election, period. There shouldn’t be an appointment after the fact.

Berkowitz: So, you think somebody will step up to challenge Dan Lipinski? In the Democratic Primary.

Claypool: I have no idea, but I think people oughta be guaranteed an election every two years, not just an appointment.
***************************************
Cook County Commissioner Forrest Claypool (D- Chicago, 12th Dist.), interviewed on “Public Affairs,” recorded on January 9, 2005 and as will be cablecast tonight [January 24, 2004] on “Public Affairs,” in the City of Chicago at 8:30 pm on Ch. 21]
***********************************
Jeff Berkowitz, Host and Producer of Public Affairs and an Executive Recruiter doing Legal Search, can be reached at JBCG@aol.com
*******************************